122 



PAGE-PAINTING 



M published under the title In Ole Virginny 

 (1887). 



I'A'.i: WILLIAM (M 1-1885). painter, was born at 

 Albany N ^ .' I -11. Muring his boyhood 



hk parent* removed to New York city, when- he 

 tudied painting under S. P. B. Morse and at the 

 National Academy. For a while he intended to enter 

 the Presbyterian ministry, but his faith was shaken and 

 be rammed his arti-ii pur-nits at Albany. Then 

 suddenly abandoning a projected visit to Europe, he 

 married and settled in New York, where he became a 

 member of the Academy in 1836. He achieve* i dis- 

 tinction in portrait-painting, but produced also 

 historical pictures, a llolv Family, and the Infancy of 

 Henri IV. Fur a while he resided in Boston, and in 

 1840 he went to Europe, where he found such iitirae- 

 tions that he remained eleven years. He became in- 

 timate with the Brownings at Florence, and painted 

 excellent portrait* of Hubert Browning and Miss 

 Cushman. Oilier works of this period are Moses and 

 Aaron on Mount I lor. The Flight into Egypt, and his 

 famous Venus, representing the goddess guiding 

 JBoeas's fleet to Italy. In his brilliancy of coloring 

 Pan had become a rival of Titian ; though he was 

 still as from the first a disciple of Allston in spirit- 

 uality. His natural gifts, careful study, and keen in- 

 Mirlit gave his works the highest value. After his 

 return to New York in 1860 Page's fame as a portrait- 

 pajnter became equal to that of Gilbert Stuart. He 

 painted Lowell, President Eliot of Harvard, Henry 

 Ward Beecher, Admiral Farragut, General Grant, 

 and many more. From 1871 t<> 1S75 he was pre.-idriit 

 of the Academy of Design, and his lectures in art 

 attracted much attention from his remarkable theories. 

 While in Europe he found in the writing of Sweden- 

 borg a solution of the doubts which had harassed his 

 mind since his early theological studies. These 

 mystical views were blended with his theory of art. 

 In his old age his intellect was clouded, and for ten 

 \ears he did little work. While his studio was in New 

 York his home was on Statcn Island, and there he 

 died Sept 30. 1885. He had been thrice married and 

 twice divorced. 



I'AINK. ROBERT TREAT (1731-1814), signer of the 

 Declaration of Independence, was born at Boston, 

 March 11, 1731. His tat her, Thomas Paine, had been 

 pastor of a church at Weymouth, Mass., but after- 

 wards became a merchant at Boston. Robert grad- 

 uated at Harvard College in 1749, taught school, 

 studied theology, and in 1755 became chaplain to the 

 Northern provincial troops. He was admitted to the 

 bar in 17.V.I. and settled at Taunton, Mass. In 1770 

 he was counsel for the prosecution of Capt. Preston 

 and others for the Boston Massacre. In 1773 he was 

 chosen to the legislature, in 1774 to the Provincial 

 Congress and also to the Continental Congress, where 

 he was a Mother of important committees. In 1777 

 he wan attorney -general of Massachusetts, and also 

 a member of tin executive council. In 1779 he took 

 part in preparing the Stute Constitution, and soon 

 after removed to Boston, where he held high position 

 at the bar. Hi- wan a judge of the Supreme Court of 

 Massachusetts from 1 790 to 1 804. He died at Boston, 

 II. 1*14. 



His son, ROBERT TREAT PAINE, JR. (1773-1811), 

 was born at Taunton, Mass.. Dec. 9, 1773. While a 

 stud, nt at Harvard College he became noted for his 

 knack of versifying. W hen he graduated in 1792 he 

 entered a counting-house but still spent his time 

 chiefly in rhyming. He assisted in introducing 

 "Mage-plays' into Boston, and married Miss linker. 

 an actrem In 1794 he started The Federal Orrery, 

 apaper whom personalities made him many enemies. 

 The poem, Thf Btvmtio* f Isttrr*. delivered on his 

 Ukmg his degree of A. ML, in 17'.C>, gave him wide 

 r.lchrily which was inlinnccd by another in 1797 on 

 / i'lm'tm. and still uiore in 17'JS by his 

 famous song, Adam* and Liberty. Having removed 



to Newburyport, he took up the study of law, and 

 after his return to Boston was admitted to the bar in 

 1802. He had many literary projects which were cut 

 short by his death at Boston, Nov. 13, 1-!1. ll<- 

 n.ime was originally Thomas Paine, hut on his petition 

 to the MaMaoaUMtli legislature in l.vil. pleading that 

 this was no Christian name, he was permitted to as- 

 sume that of his father. His writings were collected 

 and published hv Cliarles I'renti.-s in ISli'. 



PAINTING IN AMEItK 'A. The branch of paint- 

 ing earliest practised in this country was naturally 

 portraiture. Many of the paintings that have come 

 down to us from the colonial period were, of course, 

 brought over from Europe. But that painters, such 

 as they were, were practising their art in the colonies 

 as early as 1667. is shown by a passage in Cotton 

 Mather's Magivwa. The earlier artists here were 

 naturally foreigners, and were usually painters of no 

 high order. But not a few who in their native land 

 would have been barely accounted respectable arti.-ts, 

 earned fame and money in the new land by transfer- 

 ring to canvas the faces of the colonial dignitaries. 



The first artist of whom we have any record is John 

 WATSON (1685-1768), a Scotchman, who came to 

 America in 1715, settling at Perth Amboy, N. J. He 

 painted several of the colonial governors, but none of 

 his works are known at present. John SHYBERT 

 (1684-1751), another Scotchman, is better known to 

 us, as a number of his portraits are still extant. Bishop 

 Berkeley engaged him as professor of the fine arts in 

 his projected college in Bermuda, Smybert came to 

 this country in 1829, and the Bermuda project prov- 

 ing a failure, he settled in Boston. (Julian C. \Vr- 

 planck said of him : "Smybert was not an artist of 

 the first rank, for the arts were then at a very low ebb 

 in England, but the best portraits which we have of 

 the eminent magistrates and divines of New England 

 and New York who lived between 1725 and 1751 are 

 from his pencil.'' His most important work is the 

 -M'.mp of Bishop Berkeley and his family, painted in 

 1731, which was given to Yale College in 1808. A 

 aopy of Vandyke, which he made in Italy, is said to 

 have inspired several of our native American painters, 

 notably Trumbull and Allston, with a love of art, and 

 to have given them their first ideas of color. Smybert 

 was followed by a swarm of foreign artists. BLACK- 

 BURN made a brief visit. Cosmo AI.KXANDKK, a Scotch- 

 man, came over in 1770, William WILLIAMS painted 

 for a time in Philadelphia, John RAMAOE was paint- 

 ing miniatures in Boston in 1771, and so the list 

 might he extended. The earliest native painter of 

 merit of whom we have record is Robert JEKE. He 

 was painting portraits in Philadelphia about the middle 

 of last century, and specimens of his work are in pos- 

 session of Bowdoin College, the Redwood Athenaeum, 

 Newport. R. I., and the Rhode Island Historical So- 

 ciety. Next in date is Matthew PRATT (1734-1805), 

 although his contemporaries, West and Copley, were 

 earlier known as artiste. Portraits like that of Cad- 

 walader Golden, painted for the N. Y. Chamber of 

 Commerce in 1772, attest his undoubted talent. He 

 was remcml>crcd hy many as an excellent painter of 

 sign-boards, an occupation which he followed for some 

 time. But the most noted painters of this period were 

 John Singleton Copley and Benjamin West. Coi'i.KY 

 (1737-181")) had already established a reputation as a 

 painter when he went to Europe in 1774. He went 

 first to Italy, and thence to Ixmdon. where he settled 

 and became a member of the Roval Academy. In his 

 portraits the dry ness of tone and stiffness and formal- 

 ity of the figures have been objected to. He was a 

 master in the rendering of stuffs, as is attested l>\ the 

 numerous specimens of his skill in portraiture in the 

 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and at Harvard Uni- 

 versity. Many of his portraits are also in private col- 

 lections in the I'nited Slates. Of his numerous his- 

 torical pictures, executed in England, the Death of 

 the Earl of Chatham is the best known. 



